1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you; 2 So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: 5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God. 6 For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. 7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity; 8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11 Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you, 12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things; 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil; 15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths: 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words; 17 who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God: 18 for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead. 19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life: 20 that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it. 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
The teacher promises his pupil the highest advantages, if he will follow the dictates of wisdom, Proverbs 2:1-9. He shall be happy in its enjoyment, Proverbs 2:10, Proverbs 2:11; shall be saved from wicked men, Proverbs 2:12-15; and from the snares of bad women, Proverbs 2:16-19; be a companion of the good and upright; and be in safety in the land, when the wicked shall be rooted out of it, Proverbs 2:20-22.
INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 2
This chapter directs to the means of attaining to the knowledge of divine things, and shows the profit and advantage arising from thence. The means are, embracing the doctrines of the Gospel, and retaining in memory and affection the ordinances of it, Proverbs 2:1; and an inclination of the ear and an application of the heart to the knowledge of these things, Proverbs 2:2. An earnest and importunate desire, expressed by prayer, after the same, Proverbs 2:3; and a diligent and unwearied search for them, as for silver and hid treasure, Proverbs 2:4. The advantages are, that such shall attain to the fear and knowledge of God; which may be concluded from these being the gift of God to his people, and from their being laid up for them, whom he carefully keeps and preserves, Proverbs 2:5; and not only so, but such learn to do that which is just and right among men, Proverbs 2:9. And, besides, such is the nature of divine wisdom, that, when it has once got a place in the heart and in the affections, it will be a means of preserving both from the ways of evil men, Proverbs 2:10; who are described, Proverbs 2:13. And from the evil woman, whose character is given, Proverbs 2:16; whose vicious course of life, and the ways she leads persons into, are represented as very dangerous, Proverbs 2:18. And, on the contrary, such is the usefulness of true wisdom, that it leads into the way of good men, who will be happy and safe, when the wicked shall be destroyed, Proverbs 2:20.
(Proverbs 2:1-9) Promises to those who seek wisdom.
(Proverbs 2:10-22) The advantages of wisdom.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.